“At-Risk Meeting Notifier Zoom” feature alerts meeting organizers of Zoombombing risk

The popular video conferencing application Zoom implemented the new “At-Risk Meeting Notifier” feature to warn of Zoombombing threat.

Zoom announced the launch a new feature dubbed “At-Risk Meeting Notifier” to warn conference organizers of potential Zoombombing attacks.

The feature scans the web for links to Zoom meetings that have been posted online and warn organizers of the risk of Zoombombing attack.

“The At Risk Meeting Notifier scans public posts on social media sites and other public online resources for Zoom meeting links. When it finds publicly posted meeting information that indicates a given meeting may be at high risk of being disrupted, we notify account owners and admins by email.” reads the Zoom’s announcement.

The idea behind the “At-Risk Meeting Notifier” feature is that threat actors use to arrange Zoombombing attacks by sharing links to the targeted meeting on public posts on social media and other public sites.

When At-Risk Meeting Notifier finds a Zoom meeting URL, it sends an email to the organizers with a warning that attackers may disrupt their meeting.

The number of Zoombombing attacks surged with the increased popularity of the video conferencing platform since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic.

The FBI and Spokane police recently announced an investigation into the hack of Gonzaga University Black Student Union. The hackers broke into a Zoom meeting and bombarded participants with racial and homophobic slurs.

Media reported numerous Zoombombing attacks that disrupted the meeting by hurling insults, playing pornographic content, or threatening other participants.

Organizers that will receive the alert from the At Risk Meeting Notifier should take the following actions to make their future meetings private:

1. Remove or report the public post.
2. Delete the existing meeting.
3. Schedule a new meeting.
4. Enable these security settings:
   • Meeting password/passcode
   • Waiting room
   • Meeting registration
5. Send the new meeting information only to people that you know.

Organizers that would like to keep their meeting public are recommended to convert their meeting to a webinar, because a webinar will them control over who participates with video, audio, chat, and screen sharing.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Zoom)

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